Indie Editing & Local Book Stores

Bashed after professional editing and no it wasn’t by my excellant Editor. It seems to get a book into a bookstore your book has to be perfect if you are an Indie Author – never mind the bloody Traditional Published books which nearly always have one or two errors in them. The Bookstore owners sure as hell aren’t going to read them just to point out errors otherwise they’d not have a business.

I am sick of it. No only is spelling and grammar different in each English speaking country, you then have to fight for the right to sell them locally. Online it is fine, if someone points out an error you fix it and re-publish, be it print or eBook.

I do wish New Zealand would catch up with the rest of the world with Independently Published books and give them a chance. Personally if I ever won lotto or inherited a fortune I would open an Indie Book Store with a Coffee Shop. If only…

It isn’t that I think we should be lazy with our editing at all. It should be top rate, as good as you can afford. It also needs Beta Readers, Proof Readers, Line Editor and so on. If you know someone you can exchange services with etc then go for it. Writing sure as hell isn’t a cheap business. Even with all the above errors will still find a way in…You could edit for years and never publish at all I suppose.

Anyway I was given a helping hand and a possible solution to help tighten up my books with editing which includes my lovely editors. It was Thanks toA L Mengelwho I chatted to earlier this evening for ideas and ways to improve my own books. Here is what he told me.

I practice several rounds of edits. The first round,is the story structure, I do myself. Someone has to turn the draft into a flowing story, and the author really needs to do that.

After that, I send it out for a read through for flow and consistency

Then more edits are made.

Next is another set of eyes for line edits – Remember the first editor is already too familiar with the story. They may read over errors.

Then more edits are made again before it goes to the proofreader. Another set of eyes

The last step is the beta readers. They receive special copies which they read (usually 1-5 people) and if they see an error, they’re asked to record it.

That is where my conversation ended with Mr Mengel. There is one main thing I noted. He had different people doing different parts, making sure new eyes were looking over the book. It is this sort of journey which will give you and exceptional book in the end.